Manatee County’s 5% resort tax, or tourist tax, is collected from owners of accommodations rented for six months or less who charge the tax to their renters, in most cases, tourists. About 50% of the tax proceeds are allocated to Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau tourism marketing efforts, with 20% allocated to beach renourishment. The tax also partially funds tourism-related attractions such as the Bradenton Beach and Anna Maria piers. Manatee County totals include Anna Maria Island cities, Bradenton, the portion of Longboat Key within Manatee County, unincorporated Manatee County and Palmetto. To anonymously report a rental owner who may not be paying the tax, call 941-741-4809 or visit https://www.taxcollector.com/tdt-evader.cfm.
ANNA MARIA – Team Luxury Services remains in the top-ranked position in The Center’s adult co-ed flag football league going into week six of winter league play.
With the win over The Briley Mortgage Team, Luxury stays one game ahead of team Moss Builders. Luxury beat the Moss squad week two in the season.
Matthew Briley did the scoring for his team with two rushing touchdowns. Briley also had three critical stops on defense.
The lack of points after the TD and a successful throwing game kept The Briley Mortgage Team squad playing catch-up the entire game going into halftime scoreless.
Karri Stephens lit up the field for The Briley Mortgage Team with two interceptions, two catches and five flag pulls. Alonzo Lemus caught four catches and had a defensive stop.
Teammate Connor Haughey made three nice receptions and pulled one flag in the game for The Briley team.
In the win, Luxury Services’ QB, Chase Richardson, had four passing touchdowns and a pick six on the other side of the football. Two of the scoring catches were to Jonathan Soultatos.
Soultatos’ contributions in the game also included six points running the football into the endzone and a flag pull to help stop the opponent’s forward progress.
Teammates Ramon Guerrero IV and Sequiel Marintez each had a receiving touchdown. Guerrero made three defensive stops, while Marintez had two along with a two-point conversion.
Tim Holly was most effective for Luxury Services with three flag pulls and a sack to help with the big win.
Ugly Grouper looks to put their first win in the record books this week against Luxury Services. The Briley team plays Solid Rock Construction, which shares a 3-2-0 record with their next opponent, as well as The Banks Home Lending Team.
Solid Rock Construction kept team Ugly Grouper out of the endzone, shutting them out with the final score 36-0. In a scoring showdown, Moss Builders eked out the win by three points, in the 58-55 win over The Sandbar.
Sharing a record of 1-4-0 with The Sandbar after week five play, the Gulf Drive Café team lost against The Banks Home Lending team by 20 points.
With the championship match up on Thursday, March 16, all eight teams are looking to the end game with a win. The championship game starts at 7 p.m.
Buying a house during the past almost three years can be compared to a rollercoaster ride. You go up and you go down, you scream and you hold your breath waiting for the next hairpin turn. But maybe, just maybe, we’re starting to see the end of the ride.
The National Association of Realtors reported at the end of last year that the sales of previously owned homes, most of the real estate market, slid 17.7% in 2022. Also, on a month-to-month basis, sales fell 1.5% in December for an 11th straight monthly decline, the worst rate since November of 2010.
The housing boom generated by the pandemic and the ability for workers to work remotely accelerated selling prices and demand until the Federal Reserve stepped in to cool the economy and curb inflation by raising interest rates. This took a big chunk out of the ability of buyers to proceed with purchases when borrowing rates more than doubled.
As recently as October of last year, mortgage interest rates climbed over 7%, a rate not seen for two decades. This, plus the increased asking price of homes, forced many buyers out of the market since they could not qualify for the additional monthly carrying charges. Now, however, the rates are starting to trend down, and as of Feb. 5, Forbes reported the following average annual percentage rates (APR) rates: 6.37% for a 30-year fixed mortgage and 5.56% for a 15-year fixed mortgage, the two most popular mortgage products.
The forecast for 2023 is that 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rates will stay within the 5% to 6% range. Freddie Mac forecasts the average 30-year mortgage rate to start at 6.6% in the first quarter and end up at 6.2% in the last quarter of this year and Lawrence Yun, the National Association of Realtor’s chief economist said, “Mortgage rates have fallen for the past few weeks, so I’m very hopeful that the worst in home sales is probably coming to an end.”
The other bit of good news is that the Federal Reserve raised their benchmark interest rate by only a quarter of a percent rather than a full half percent, which they have been doing monthly for some time. All of this may point to the fact that the mortgage rates have hit their peak, advertising to buyers and sellers it may be time to get back in the game.
Next week when we review the January sales statistics, we’ll have a better idea if our local market is starting to show an increase in sales activity and available inventory. As far as affordability, the asking prices on the Island are as high as ever and the construction of new homes is on practically every street. If the city of Anna Maria is second in Florida’s most expensive median listing price, as recently reported by Realtor.com, it will take a lot to turn that around any time soon.
So, just like getting off the rollercoaster, it takes you a few minutes to get your land legs back under you and wait for your heart to return to a normal beat. Everyone’s hoping this is that time… prices are still high but leveling off, mortgage rates are gradually declining and sellers who have been sitting on their super-low mortgage rates may start to reconsider the financial benefit of selling. However, stand by – there’s always another rollercoaster coming down the track.
Seabirds are one the Suncoast’s prime attractions for anglers, visitors and residents alike. Birds in general, and seabirds specifically, provide a significant boost to Florida’s economy and are a major reason the state ranks as one of the nation’s top wildlife viewing destinations. We are stirred by their song and their aerial displays and are guided to fish as they wheel and dive over schools of bait being plundered by pelagic fish. The haunting sound of a whippoorwill signals the arrival of spring, while the colorful plumage of a spoonbill and the elaborate rituals of herons, terns and other seabirds heralds the breeding season. We marvel at the graceful flight of a formation of black skimmers, their bills tracing paths across the water’s surface at sunset, as they wheel overhead in a rush of wings.
With all that birds provide us, it’s alarming to learn that species-wide, we’ve lost the equivalent of one in four birds in the last 50 years. The major reason is loss of habitat, and the seabirds we treasure are particularly vulnerable due to the loss of mangroves for nesting and the practice of many seabirds to lay their eggs and raise their young just above a barrier island’s high-water line.
Birds need our help, and there are specific things that anglers and outdoor enthusiasts alike can do to help them. One of the most heartbreaking things anyone can experience is a dead or dying bird garroted in the mangroves by an unsuspecting fisherman’s line. Anglers who fish the coastal waters of Florida will invariably come into contact with seabirds that inhabit the estuaries of our state. Often that encounter is deadly to seabirds if anglers don’t know the basics of avoiding contact with or caring for hooked birds. Birds live here, it’s their home and they aid savvy anglers as they search for food. The birds get into trouble when they come in contact with discarded fishing line in the mangroves or they take line to their roosts after becoming hooked. The incidents of anglers hooking birds can be reduced or eliminated by following a few simple rules. First, never feed birds. This trains birds to look for a handout and leads them to often unsuspecting anglers. Secondly, while you’re fishing, be aware of birds that might be eyeing your bait or lure. It’s easy to pull it out of harm’s way at the last second before a bird dives on it.
If you do hook a bird, make sure that you fight them just like you would a trophy fish to prevent them from breaking the line. Trailing line can be a death sentence for the birds when they return to their roost at night. Care should be taken when handling birds due to their fragile, hollow bones and sharp beaks. First, place a towel over the bird’s head. This will calm them and protect the angler from sharp bills. You can then cautiously remove hooks and unwind line before releasing them.
During nesting season (peaking here May through June) birds are particularly vulnerable, especially those that nest on the beaches of our barrier islands. It’s crucial that humans avoid breeding colonies on public beaches and especially the few places designated as off-limits because of their critical nesting potential. Locally protected areas like Egmont Key and Passage Key are often threatened by unsuspecting and careless beachgoers endangering eggs and young hatchlings. The birds don’t have a voice and it’s left to those of us that appreciate and benefit from them to be their advocates.
If while fishing you see a hooked or tangled bird in an active rookery, don’t approach them during nesting season. Our well-meaning intentions can cause more harm than good by causing startled young birds to fall from the nest.
Taking care of the environment that feeds our passion is everyone’s responsibility. Follow these simple guidelines: be aware of the presence of seabirds, take care in handling them and never feed birds. If you see a bird in distress and it’s not nesting season, you can free them. If they swim or fly away on their own that’s all you’ll need to do. If you believe they are too weak to recover on their own, contact one of the local organizations that rescue and rehabilitate sea birds. On Anna Maria Island you can call Wildlife Inc. at 941-778-6324. To our south, call Save Our Seabirds on City Island in Sarasota at 941-388-3010. Audubon’s Coastal Island Sanctuaries has an informative website and can be reached by calling 813-794-3784. Join Suncoast Waterkeeper in their efforts to protect mangroves and water quality and join Sarasota Bay Watch’s Annual Fishing Line Cleanup in the fall.
Birds of all kinds are a critical component and bellwether of a healthy environment. Let’s all work together to create a vibrant and safe place – for the birds.
HOLMES BEACH – What a difference a few days and some strong winds can make.
While red tide reports from several days earlier showed low concentrations of Karenia brevis, the organism that causes red tide blooms, conditions changed on Sunday.
With winds out of the west at more than 23 mph churning up the blooms in the Gulf of Mexico and pushing them toward Anna Maria Island beaches, the unmistakable smell – and feel – of red tide permeated a largely empty Manatee Beach.
One visitor from New York was coughing profusely as she left the beach Sunday morning.
“I wanted to see the beach, but I have asthma and I couldn’t stay long,” she said. “I started coughing almost immediately. This is too much for me.”
Some people experience respiratory irritation (coughing, sneezing, tearing and an itchy throat) when red tide is present and winds blow onshore, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), while offshore winds can keep respiratory effects experienced by those on the shore to a minimum.
Red tide produces toxins capable of killing fish, birds and other marine animals. The toxins can also cause health problems in humans, including respiratory irritation when wave action breaks open red tide cells and the toxins become airborne, according to the FWC.
The Florida Department of Health advises people with severe or chronic respiratory conditions, such as COPD, emphysema or asthma, to avoid areas with red tide.
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – Vacation rentals are a popular use of residential properties both on the Island and in unincorporated Manatee County where West Manatee Fire Rescue’s district is located. Now district leaders are looking at reclassifying those properties within their district as commercial properties for enforcement and tax purposes.
During a January board meeting, Fire Marshal Rodney Kwiatkowski presented the idea to the district’s staff and board of commissioners as a life safety concern. With so many people in and out of vacation rentals across the district and limited oversight from government agencies, as a preventative measure, he said he’d like the district’s fire prevention bureau to be able to inspect the properties for safety.
Inspections would include looking for items such as properly placed smoke alarms, fire extinguishers, floor plans of the home indicating exit points, emergency lighting and other precautionary measures commonly found in commercial properties. To fund the initiative, he suggested the fire department’s staff look into the possibility of assessing the owners of vacation rental properties in the district as commercial rather than residential properties. If that happens, it will mean a jump of approximately $200 per year, depending on the size of the property, for vacation rental owners and an increase of more than $1 million in funding to the fire district.
To run the program, Kwiatkowski said the district would need two more inspectors and an assistant at an estimated cost of $350,309 per year with an additional $140,000 needed to pay for department vehicles for the new hires.
Currently, the district charges a fire assessment on residential trim notices at a lower rate than they do for commercial properties. And while multiple-unit residential properties are already assessed and inspected as commercial properties, traditionally residential properties, such as single-family homes and duplexes, are still treated as if a full-time resident lives there. Because they are rented, Kwiatkowski said that under the state’s fire code, the properties are identified as transient public lodging establishments, allowing for them to be inspected by the fire district’s staff. This is the same designation given to a hotel.
In the past three years, Kwiatkowski said that of the 11 residential structure fires on the Island, eight of them were at vacation rental properties. In 2022, he said there were three pediatric drownings or near-drownings on the Island, all of which occurred at rental properties.
He presented the proposed project at a Holmes Beach Code Compliance town hall meeting with vacation rental owners and representatives on Jan. 31, reassuring the rental community that the fire department would be working with local municipalities to make sure that enforcement and inspections would not overlap with those currently taking place on the Island as a result of city efforts to make rentals safer for visitors. He added that the inspections would likely begin taking place in the fall.
ANNA MARIA – State legislators say they no longer intend to commission a state-funded feasibility study on the potential consolidation of the three Anna Maria Island cities and their respective city governments.
Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy made the announcement during this afternoon’s Anna Maria City Commission meeting.
Murphy returned to Anna Maria today after spending Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in Tallahassee meeting privately with the five members of the Manatee County legislative delegation – Rep. Will Robinson Jr., Sen. Jim Boyd, Sen. Joe Gruters, Rep. Tommy Gregory and Rep. Mike Beltran.
State Rep. Will Robinson Jr. is no longer pursuing a consolidation study. – MyFloridaHouse.com | Submitted
On Jan. 12, Robinson announced that the delegation intended to seek during the upcoming 2023 legislative session a state-funded study on the feasibility of consolidating or dissolving the three Island cities. During that same meeting, the delegation also announced its intent to file state legislation that could potentially preempt the city of Holmes Beach’s land development code and city charter to allow Manatee County to build a multi-story parking garage on county property to provide more public parking for beachgoers and other visitors.
An outcry erupted from many elected officials and their constituents in the Island’s three cities, Anna Maria, Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach, that state officials were attempting to destroy home rule, the ability of the Island cities to govern themselves. Concerns were voiced that consolidating or dissolving the Island cities would put them under Manatee County’s jurisdiction, eliminating local codes including building height restrictions and paving the way for a new set of rules for development.
Regarding the consolidation discussions he had with Robinson in Tallahassee, Murphy said during today’s meeting, “He has agreed to pull that from the table for this year. That won’t be an item this year. Sen. Boyd agreed.”
During a recent Anna Maria commission meeting, Murphy said that Robinson told him he sought the state-funded consolidation study because he’s received numerous complaints about taxes being too high on Anna Maria Island. The proposed consolidation study would have looked at whether consolidating some or all of the similar public services provided by each of the three Island cities might produce lower property taxes for the Island’s property owners.
Consolidating Island city services
However, Murphy said, “They would like the three Island mayors to have some formal discussions as to what can be consolidated because they are getting pressure from constituents about the tax rates here on the Island. What can we do from a service point of view? To that end, I asked the other two mayors to meet with me here at city hall this morning on my return from Tallahassee. We agreed that the three of us will work on what can be consolidated. What’s the low-hanging fruit that can quickly be captured? Long-term and short-term, what can we do here with the idea of saving taxpayers money?” he said.
Murphy said the three mayors will meet every two or three weeks to discuss what can be done regarding the consolidation of shared services. He said the mayors would likely address one potential point of consolidation at a time. He said the three mayors will also solicit input from their commissioners and city staff members and provide their commissions with regular updates.
“I feel comfortable that my fellow mayors will give it a fair and honest shot,” Murphy said.
When asked if he could provide any examples of services that might potentially be consolidated, Murphy said it was too early to do so. He said those details would be released when there’s a solid plan in place. Murphy said listing potential areas of consolidation now could cause city employees in all three cities to become apprehensive about the potential impacts consolidation might have on their jobs and livelihoods.
A few years ago, Murphy proposed consolidating the Anna Maria and Holmes Beach public works departments but those efforts proved unsuccessful.
“We need to have a serious effort on the consolidation. We’ve made efforts in the past and that went nowhere. This time it’s serious and we need to have a serious conversation. I have every confidence, after my meeting this morning with the other two mayors, that we’ll make progress with some form of consolidation,” Murphy said.
Murphy said if left to the state, the complete consolidation of the three Island cities is a possible scenario.
For his efforts, Murphy received a round of applause from the commissioners and others who attended today’s meeting.
Parking concerns
Murphy said the Legislature’s continued concern about parking in Holmes Beach is not an issue that directly impacts the city of Anna Maria.
“That’s an issue between Holmes Beach and the state. This is not a county issue anymore,” he said.
Murphy referenced the streetside parking spaces the city of Holmes Beach eliminated during its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Approximately 650 parking spaces were eliminated in Holmes Beach. The county, through the state, wants some reprimands for those. They’re gone and they’d like to have them back. I think everybody recognizes that a parking garage is not a panacea. You could put up a dozen and you still wouldn’t have enough, but 650 spots are 650 spots. They were taken and is there some way to get that back?” Murphy said.
He added that the parking reductions in Holmes Beach have “created a lot of angst” with people on the mainland who feel their ability to visit the public beaches has been negatively impacted by those actions.
“Was it the right thing to do or not? At this point, the ship has sailed,” Murphy said of that past decision.
He said Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth has reached an agreement with the Episcopal Church of the Annunciation in Holmes Beach to provide some additional public parking spaces in the church parking lot. Murphy said he was asked to meet with the priest at St. Bernard Catholic Church in Holmes Beach, where Murphy is a member, and there’s a willingness there to also provide some additional public parking spaces.
I strongly oppose your efforts to do away with home rule on Anna Maria Island. The three cities are unique, which adds to the appeal of the Island, and they deserve to rule themselves according to their specific needs.
In addition, your proposal to override local parking restrictions to build a parking garage will do nothing to solve the “parking” problem and will do much to worsen the actual problem, traffic. There is a finite amount of space on the Island, and allowing more cars to park will only worsen the conditions for everyone. Any long-term solution should maintain the character of the Island and involve off-site parking with shuttles. There will never be enough parking for every resident of Manatee County, nor should there be.
It is highly suspicious of your true motives that you failed to consult with Island officials before acting on your proposals. How ironic and sad (and infuriating) it would be if your changes eliminated the very things that make the Island appealing.
I have already witnessed the gradual worsening of conditions on the Island in the nine years we have been coming here. The first year we were here, I was struck by the pristine condition of the beach. It felt “holy” to me, like a very special place; I never saw a single piece of trash. With the increase in “day trippers,” I now see trash on the beach constantly. There seems to be a lack of a sense of “ownership” when people are here for just a few hours. It would benefit the Island to maintain the combination of renters, owners and visitors and not turn the place over to those who seek to make money above all else.
I am a property owner and part-year resident of Holmes Beach. I did not buy property as an investment or to be a landlord. I own property here because of the Is- land’s unique, old Florida character and combination of residents, part-time residents and vacationers. Your proposals would lay waste to what makes AMI special. I beseech you: Do not submit these as part of a bill in the forthcoming legislative session.
ANNA MARIA – High-scoring flag football action entertained the Island last week at The Center. The kids played their third week of regular season games, while the adults finished their fourth games on Feb. 2.
In the first game of 11- to 13-year-old league play closing out January football, Solid Rock Construction faced off against Pineapple Market Place. The fast-paced game ended with the Pineapple squad maintaining their undefeated record with a final score of 48-26.
Solid Rock’s first loss of the season was not without amazing play on both sides of the football.
Carter Eurice, QB for Solid Rock Construction, threw for four passing touchdowns. Eurice’s targets were Hayden Eurice, Audrey Guess and Austin Guess.
H. Eurice finished the game with one touchdown and three flag pulls on defense. Austin Guess also scored six points in the game and, on the other side of the football, two defensive stops.
Colson Mendiola scored an all-important extra-point conversion, adding a point to Solid Rock’s score. Addie Guess and Bella and Obi Roadman made plays to support the Solid Rock squad.
Avery Guess had a nice catch in the game, keeping Solid Rock in the game.
In week three youth flag football ac- tion, Solid Rock Construction’s Carter Eurice is chased out of the pocket by Pineapple Market Place’s rusher, Jordan Tobey. – Monica Simpson | Sun
The high scorer of the week for Solid Rock was Audrey Guess, scoring two TDs and two flag pulls. With six receptions, she matched the catch count of opponent Pey- ton Hovda.
League veteran Hovda finished the game scoring three touchdowns, one rushing and two receiving, three flag pulls, two two-point conversions, and three interceptions on defense.
The three interceptions, including one for a TD, was the game changer for Pineapple Market Place, leading to their victory.
Hovda’s teammates all had an amazing game, contributing to the win.
Pineapple Market quarterback and lifelong Center flag football player Jack Mattick passed for two touchdowns to Hovda.
On defense, Mattick contributed with two flag pulls and an interception. Teammate Colin Bankert had defensive stats with two stops and offensive stats with two receptions.
Riley Karecki got the call on a successful two-point conversion play for Pineapple. Offensive pass completions for Pineapple Marketplace include two catches by Brantley Kobialka. Cyrus Ryan added two flag pulls to the team’s record.
Pineapple Marketplace teammates Krosby Lamison, Kaleb Romagnino and Jordan Tobey rounded out the squad, making contributions in the team’s win this season.
Can the Pineapple Marketplace team finish the season undefeated? With only two regular-season games left, only Shady Lady and Moss Builders can stop them. Both squads finished week three with a 2-1-0 record.
It’s not uncommon for people to look at the job of a real estate agent and say, “Wow, that looks easy. Work part-time, pick your hours, work from home and make a lot of money.” Well, those of us who have done the job know that none of that is actually true. Similarly, purchasing a second home – whether you’re setting it up as a rental investment property or using it for your personal use – is never as easy as it looks.
If you’re purchasing a property to rent, the benefits include passive income and tax breaks. Properties on Anna Maria Island, for example, have become so expensive that just getting into a property will cost a lot more than in previous years.
You need a minimum of 20% down if you’re financing, and mortgage loans on an investment property can be higher by a point or two than primary homes or even second homes that are non-rentals. In addition, investment property loans include higher minimum credit scores and a more desirable debt-to-loan ratio. Lenders also generally require more cash reserves as well.
Maintenance of a second home, whether it’s an investment property or one for personal use, has gone up considerably in the past couple of years. Some owners say it’s as much as 10%, which seems a little low to me. The cost of materials, appliances and labor have hit all homeowners, but second homeowners are hurting on all of their homes.
Anna Maria Island, especially this season, is maintaining a very high occupancy rate for rental properties. But this is not always true and if you lose the ability to rent the property, your stream of income is severely damaged. Inflation is taking a bite out of everyone’s budget and vacations are a luxury; having a nice cash buffer will help with the anxiety of not having a tenant.
One of the major benefits of owning a second home is to watch your appreciation grow and grow and grow. And that certainly has happened in the past two years. But here again, we have seen real estate markets take a plunge, taking all of your “mental equity” along with it. You’ll need to develop nerves of steel to invest in real estate.
Finally, if you have the vision of generational family gatherings passed down through the years long after you’re gone, don’t be surprised if your beneficiaries don’t feel the same connection to the property or each other. Family members may feel differently on the amount of usage, the cost of upkeep, whether the property should be updated, should they allow rentals or if indeed they even want the property. It can become really tricky to make everyone happy, especially if one of the family members wants out and the others need to come up with the cash to buy them out or sell the property.
Even on Anna Maria Island where beach houses and other second homes are off the scale valuable, ownership isn’t easy. Just like any piece of real estate, it becomes a daily chore that will all be paid back to you while sitting on your beachfront deck. Now if you want something easy, get a real estate license; we all know that’s a piece of cake.
The third annual Waterman Fly Fishing Tournament was held this past weekend. The two-day, fly-only redfish tournament with a Snook Calcutta (an award for the longest snook of the tournament) was a sellout with 126 anglers registered. The fishing boundaries were wide-ranging, including the west coast of Florida from Crystal River to the southernmost tip of Sanibel Island. The photo submission format and the angler tournament app made it possible for fishermen in this entire range to participate. The tournament culminated in an awards banquet and prize-rich raffle at the Bradenton Yacht Club on Sunday evening, an event that was made possible by a large number of generous sponsors. All proceeds from the tournament benefited Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection, preservation and improvement of the Tampa Bay watershed.
The 63 two-angler teams received a collared long-sleeve tournament shirt, Tampa Bay Waterkeeper hats, dinner for two at the awards ceremony and one raffle ticket for each angler. Target species were redfish and snook. Scoring was done by the highest combination of the two longest redfish caught between day one and day two. If a tie had occurred in any of the three top places, it would have been decided by a casting competition based on fly casting distance and accuracy.
Sponsors were pivotal to this event and the fishing community stepped up to support TBWK’s mission. A full list of sponsors is available on the Tampa Bay Waterkeeper website.
Some quality redfish were landed, but among the anglers I spoke to there was concern with the overall abundance of fish as well as the condition of the bay. That sentiment was shared by tournament organizer and TBWK Board member Adam Fernandez in his introduction at the evening’s awards ceremony and raffle. A total of 82 fish were weighed in during the two-day tournament including nine snook, the biggest at 25.5 inches.
Seventy-two redfish were entered in the tournament. The biggest, at 34 inches, was caught by Pierson Monetti of the first-place team Crawl Mode with Josh Glidden. The team entered two fish totaling a combined 65 inches. Monet- ti’s company, MRIC Spatial, was a platinum sponsor of the tournament. Second place was claimed by Team Not Ready with Leigh West and Brandon Chircop. Their two fish totaled 62.5 inches. Third place was awarded to Team Bar Fly with a two-fish total of 54 inches.
There was great camaraderie, a dinner, a raffle with many fine products and an inspirational presentation by Bill Horn. Horn is vice-chair of the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust (BTT) and former assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks. He is the author of “Seasons on the Flats,”“On the Bow” and many other literary works. Bill has been deeply involved in Everglades restoration for the last 20 years. He’s been a major force behind BTT’s work on water quality, fisheries management and federal policy. In his speech, he mentioned BTT’s recent study of pharmaceutical drugs in bonefish. The study was expanded to include redfish in Florida waters to show the problem was more widespread than the Florida Keys. Tampa Bay was one of the regions sampled and the redfish were found to have some of the highest levels of pharmaceutical drugs, including antidepressants, blood pressure medications, painkillers and a host of other compounds. Horn finished by saying that the technology exists to remove these compounds and emphasized the critical need to implement them before the drugs enter the environment further. Organizations like Tampa Bay Waterkeeper are on the front line of the defense of our littoral environment and deserve the support of anglers and all those who appreciate the threatened coastal ecosystem. The challenge is to make decision-makers aware of the concerns and have them address them at the state and national levels. Your vote is critical to making this a reality. See how your local, state and federal representatives have voted on these issues at the League of Conservation Voters website. As Horn mentioned in his closing statement, “if we don’t do this, this might be the last generation of anglers to have the opportunity.” Join Tampa Bay Waterkeeper and be a part of the solution.
ANNA MARIA ISLAND – The recent proposal by Manatee County’s state legislative delegation to fund a study to determine the feasibility of combining or eliminating the three Anna Maria Island cities has far-reaching ramifications.
The Florida Legislature has the power to merge or dissolve cities, although it has only dissolved three cities in the past 50 years.
The 1973 ratification of the Home Rule Powers Act allows dissolution or consolidation by a special act of the Florida Legislature or by a referendum vote of the voters in the municipality, according to the Florida League of Cities.
Since then, only 11 municipalities have been dissolved and only three were by a special act of the Legislature: Hacienda Village was merged into the town of Davie in 1984, Golfview was sold to an airport in Palm Beach County for a new runway in 1998 and Islandia was dissolved in 2012 because the population dwindled to less than five and no elections had been held since 1990.
In 2005, voters in Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach voted in favor of a non-binding resolution to study the feasibility of consolidation, but Anna Maria city commissioners opted to not put the question to voters in that city, so nothing came of the proposal.
If the state Legislature consolidates the three Island cities into one new municipality, the new city would lose its existing ordinances, including length of stay for vacation rentals, height restrictions, parking restrictions, occupancy requirements and vacation rental regulations. Some regulations would lose their grandfathered status as they would be pre-empted by subsequent state law, according to the league.
Deconstructing cities
According to Florida Statute 165.061, not only can a municipality be dissolved by a special act of the state Legislature, but multiple municipalities also can be merged together.
The statutory requirements for a municipality to be dissolved include that the municipality not be substantially surrounded by other municipalities. The county or another neighboring municipality also must prove the ability and willingness to provide necessary services to the dissolved municipality and be able to absorb the financial responsibilities of the dissolved municipality. In addition, a financial or job placement arrangement must be made for employees of the dissolved municipality.
To create a new municipality by merging existing municipalities, the area under consideration must be compact, contiguous and susceptible to urban services, honor existing solid waste contracts, provide financial compensation or job placement for employees and meet the prerequisites to annexation listed in Florida Statute 171.042. Some of those prerequisites include the creation of a new boundary map, creating plans for the running and governing of the new municipality and holding public hearings for all residents and property owners.
Mayors on Anna Maria Island have expressed their opposition to the dissolution or consolidation of the cities and met on Jan. 30 with delegation members Rep. Will Robinson Jr. and Rep. Jim Boyd to discuss the proposed study and a proposed bill to circum- vent Holmes Beach regulations to build a four-story parking garage at the county-owned property at Manatee Beach. A joint statement on the two topics is expected to be issued after press time for The Sun.
BRADENTON BEACH – City commissioners continue to express concerns about legislative actions recently proposed by State Rep. Will Robinson Jr. and other state legislators.
On Jan. 12, Robinson (R-Bradenton) and his fellow Republican members of the Manatee County legislative delegation announced their intent to pursue state legislation that could potentially allow Manatee County to preempt the city of Holmes Beach’s land development code in order to build a multi-story parking garage on county property to provide more parking for beachgoers and other visitors. Robinson and his fellow state legislators also announced their desire for a state-funded study regarding the possible consolidation or elimination of the three Island cities and city governments.
Led by Sen. Jim Boyd (R-Bradenton), the Manatee County legislative delegation also includes Sen. Joe Gruters, Rep. Tommy Gregory and Rep. Mike Beltran. State legislators began a special 12-day legislative session on Monday, and their regular annual 60-day legislative session begins on March 7.
Bradenton Beach concerns
On Feb. 2, the Bradenton Beach Commission again discussed these legislative matters. Mayor John Chappie noted that City Attorney Ricinda Perry referenced the state legislators’ efforts in a letter she sent to the accounting firm that annually audits the city’s finances. In that letter, Perry identified current or potential legal actions or litigation that could impact the city’s finances.
“The city of Bradenton Beach has been placed on notice that Representative Robinson may propose a study funded by the Florida Legislature to determine if the three Anna Maria Island Cities – Bradenton Beach, Holmes Beach and Anna Maria – should be consolidated or dissolved,” Perry stated in her Jan. 31 letter.
“The impacts of this would impair all existing contracts, leases, franchise agreements, employment agreements, endowments and retirement accounts. There has been real property gifted to the city that may have reverter clauses. The city would cease to exist if the special act creating the municipality would be repealed and the city was dissolved by the Florida Legislature,” Perry’s letter said.
“To date, the city has not received notice that the study has been authorized, nor has the city received notice that Representative Robinson has filed a local house bill to dissolve the city,” Perry’s letter said in closing.
Perry noted eliminating the city would also eliminate the city charter. Among other things, the city charter includes height restrictions that prohibit the construction of high-rise structures.
Perry receives legislative updates from the city’s contracted lobbyist, Dave Ramba. Ramba believes Robinson will push for the consolidation study during this year’s legislative session and wait until the 2024 session to decide what to do with the recommendations made in the study. Perry said the study is one of Robinson’s top legislative priorities.
Perry also spoke with Florida League of Cities attorney David Cruz and was told the League will be part of the efforts to defeat the legislative actions sought by the Manatee County delegation.
“This is a new attack on home rule,” Perry said.
Perry said she spoke with Robinson, too. She said he’s concerned about the tax burdens placed on the Island’s taxpayers and wants to know whether consolidating some or all of the services provided by each of the Island cities would reduce those tax burdens.
After noting that people voluntarily chose to live and own property on Anna Maria Island, Perry said, “If the extra (property) tax is the concern, then by virtue of his claim every municipality in the state is an overtax on people and every county should be a county with no municipalities in it.”
Chappie noted the city only receives a small percentage of the tax revenues Manatee County collects in Bradenton Beach.
Perry said Robinson also feels the three Island cities, in general, need to find or create more parking for beachgoers and visitors, but one city in particular (Holmes Beach) is the state legislators’ main concern.
On Jan. 30, Chappie, Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth and Anna Maria Mayor Dan Murphy met with Robinson and Boyd at Anna Maria City Hall in a private meeting arranged by Murphy.
During Thursday’s commission meeting, Chappie shared some of what was discussed during that meeting, and also during his previous meetings with Titsworth and Murphy. Chappie said the three mayors have had some preliminary discussion about possibly consolidating some of the services provided by each of the three cities, including flood plain management, the flood insurance-related Community Rating System, code enforcement and things of that nature.
“We’re looking at that and that was part of the request from our legislators,” Chappie said.
Commissioner Ralph Cole addressed the potential consolidation or elimination of the city’s police department.
“It’s good to have your own police department. They know the people, how the area works and what’s going on in each neighborhood,” he said.
“Look at the amount of crime out here on the Island and tell us we haven’t done a good job,” Cole said in comparison to crime rates experienced elsewhere in the county.
Regarding consolidation in general, Chappie said, “I don’t think the numbers actually work. We’re going to look at all that.”
“It would be a disaster for this area,” Cole said.
No one has more vested interest in water quality and the protection of our local marine habitat than anglers. That fact is clearly evident for those that make a living from the bays and estuaries that define the Suncoast, making it one of the country’s most desirable locations to visit and live. It’s easy to understand that fishing guides, waterfront restaurants, marinas and resort accommodations like hotels, motels and marinas, benefit from a robust and sustainable environment. What’s less well appreciated by the public at large is the impact of a healthy environment on the economy at large.
Fortunately, local anglers, through advocacy groups like Suncoast Waterkeeper and Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, are getting that message to a wider audience through the media, legal actions and events like this week’s Third Annual Waterman Fly Fishing Tournament. The event, a sellout this year, is a two-day, fly fishing-only, catch-and-release redfish tournament with an optional Snook Calcutta that awards the winner a 50/50 cash payout. The event will be held on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 4-5. The tournament has a full field of 50 teams with 100 anglers.
All proceeds from the photo submission, all release formats including entry fees, 50% of the Snook Calcutta and raffle ticket purchases directly benefit Tampa Bay Waterkeeper, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. The fishing boundaries are the west coast of Florida from the southern tip of Sanibel Island to the southern edge of the Crystal River Power Plant main channel. The target species are snook and redfish. The Waterman tournament culminates on Feb. 5 with an awards banquet at the Bradenton Yacht Club and features a raffle made possible by our generous sponsors. A limited amount of guest tickets to the awards banquet are available for purchase for $50.
Locally, we are blessed to receive the benefit of two Waterkeeper groups. Suncoast Waterkeeper concentrates its efforts on the waters of Manatee County and Sarasota County, primarily Sarasota Bay. Tampa Bay Waterkeeper focuses its efforts on the waters of Tampa Bay and its surrounding estuaries. Local anglers know that there are no distinct boundaries between these areas and both organizations work together on broader issues, like Piney Point and the proposed fish farm off New Pass. While the tournament is sold out this year, I’ll report back on the results and would encourage everyone to support these groups’ advocacy efforts through donations, advocacy and volunteerism. Their work supports everything we value locally.
HOLMES BEACH – Anna Maria Island’s elected officials are uniting to preserve home rule in the face of recent attempts by state legislators to circumvent local parking ordinances and fund a study to determine if the Island’s three cities should be dissolved.
Not only the central city on the Island, but also the one central to a debate at the state level, Holmes Beach has a prohibition against parking garages that state legislators have threatened to overturn. City leaders took a few moments during a Jan. 24 city commission meeting to address that issue and that of dissolving the Island cities.
It was standing room only in city hall chambers as residents, property owners and other stakeholders came out to show their support to Mayor Judy Titsworth and city commissioners. More joined the meeting online through Zoom.
Titsworth thanked everyone in attendance for their “outpouring of support” and vowed to do everything possible to fight back against the state’s encroachment into home rule of the Island, the ability of local governments to govern themselves.
While she said she and the two mayors from Bradenton Beach and Anna Maria would be meeting on Jan. 30 to discuss options and strategy, she wouldn’t be discussing those things publicly so as to not give state legislators the upper hand.
During a January legislative delegation meeting, Rep. Will Robinson Jr. proposed putting a bill forth in the upcoming state legislative session to install a four-story parking garage at Manatee Beach in Holmes Beach. Installation of a parking garage would undermine city ordinances that prohibit parking garages in the city and would break the city’s three-story building height limitation, which is written into the municipality’s charter. While parking garages were never an approved use in Holmes Beach, the ordinance officially stating that was not passed until 2022, after a meeting with Manatee County commissioners to discuss beach parking issues.
Titsworth said that Robinson, Rep. Jim Boyd and Manatee County Commissioner Kevin Van Ostenbridge were informed prior to the discussion that parking garages were not an allowable use in the city but that they could submit for a change of use. She said no one from the county, which owns the Manatee Beach property, ever did.
“There’s lots of misinformation from the county,” she said. “I’m over this. We’re not trying to privatize the Island. We’re a far cry from a private island.”
Robinson also proposed having a state-funded agency do a feasibility study to determine if the three Island city governments should be dissolved, putting the Island under the control of Manatee County commissioners. Consolidation of the three cities also has been discussed.
Florida Statutes 165.061(3)(b) requires that if a municipal government is dissolved by a special act of the state Legislature, a neighboring municipality would have to demonstrate that it is willing and able, including financially, to “provide necessary services to the municipal area proposed for dissolution.” Other statutory requirements prohibit the municipality to be dissolved from being “substantially surrounded by other municipalities.”
Data from the Florida League of Cities shows that only 11 municipalities have been dissolved since 1977 and only two of those were by special act of the state Legislature.
Commissioner Terry Schaefer, who attended the legislative delegation meeting, said that no one in the three Island city governments received prior notification about the parking garage proposal or the state-funded study.
“I think it showed a great deal of disrespect to everyone who lives on and loves this Island,” he said, noting that the dissolution study is “a stark warning to every community in Florida.”
“It’ll be really sad if there comes a time when all of our little coastal cities are gone,” Titsworth said.
“We’re not going to get into a fight,” Commissioner Carol Soustek said. “We want to move forward carefully and legally.”
Though the city’s elected officials committed to doing everything they can to halt both the parking garage and the attempt to dissolve the Island cities, they also encouraged all residents, property owners, visitors and stakeholders to lend their voices to the fight by reaching out to local and state representatives with their opinions on the two issues.
Schaefer also appeared on Jan. 26 at a ManaSota League of Cities meeting in Longboat Key on behalf of Holmes Beach. He was joined by Bradenton Beach Mayor John Chappie and representatives from several other local municipalities. The group agreed to draft and send a letter to the state Legislature and local delegation in support of the three Anna Maria Island cities remaining as-is and decrying the state’s potential intrusion into home rule.
Birds need our help, and there are specific things that anglers and outdoor enthusiasts alike can do to help them. One of the most heartbreaking things anyone can experience is a dead or dying bird garroted in the mangroves by an unsuspecting fisherman’s line. Anglers who fish the coastal waters of Florida will invariably come into contact with seabirds that inhabit the estuaries of our state. Often that encounter is deadly to seabirds if anglers don’t know the basics of avoiding contact with or caring for hooked birds. Birds live here, it’s their home and they aid savvy anglers as they search for food. The birds get into trouble when they come in contact with discarded fishing line in the mangroves or they take line to their roosts after becoming hooked. 
